How to Play Clove in Valorant

Clove is a Controller who breaks the usual mold by being able to smoke from anywhere on the map — even after death. That unique trait lets Clove play aggressively like a Duelist while still supporting the team with smokes, making them one of the most flexible controllers in the game.

Clove’s Role: The Aggro Controller

Clove’s job is to take fights like a Duelist and still provide smokes like a Controller. Because their smokes can be called from the map view at any time, Clove does not need to play passively. They suit players who want to frag and support at once. See our Valorant roles explained guide for how Controllers fit a team.

Clove’s Abilities Explained

Pick-me-up (Basic)

200 credits · 1 charge · C

After downing an enemy, Clove can consume their essence for a brief heal and movement-speed boost. This reward for aggression is what lets Clove play like a Duelist.

Meddle (Basic)

250 credits · 1 charge · Q

A thrown fragment that decays enemies in a radius, dealing damage-over-time that keeps them from holding an angle. Use it to soften a site before your team pushes.

Ruse (Signature)

2 charges, 1 while dead · first free, extra 150 credits · 40-second restock · E

Clove’s signature smokes, called from a top-down map view. The key difference from other controllers: Clove can cast Ruse even after dying, so they keep supporting the round from the grave.

Not Dead Yet (Ultimate)

8 ultimate points · X

If Clove gets a kill or assist within a short window after dying, they can resurrect themselves. This turns a first-blood trade into a second life and makes Clove terrifying to push into.

Your smokes cost money, and death does not refund them

Clove is one of the few Controllers who pays per smoke after the first. Ruse hands you one charge free when the round starts and refills on a 40-second cycle, but the second charge costs 150 — so opening a round with two smokes at once is a 150-credit purchase, and the free charge is the one you save for the post-death cast.

The death clause is where players misread the tooltip. The second charge disappears when you die; the “1 while dead” line means you keep a single Ruse to cast from the map view, not the full pair. So the round-ending sequence is: smoke with the second charge before you die, and keep the first one for the callout you make after.

How to Play Clove: Frag, Then Smoke

The best Clove players take an early duel for Pick-me-up, then use Ruse to smoke for the team afterward. Do not hoard smokes — Clove’s value is enabling the push whether alive or dead. Save Not Dead Yet for a round-winning re-entry, and use Meddle to clear a known hold before the execute. If your aim is the bottleneck, our aim routine guide will help you win the opening duel.

Common Mistakes Clove Players Make

• Playing too passively for an agent designed to frag.
• Wasting Ruse when a teammate already smoked the angle.
• Dying without using Meddle to soften the site first.
• Forgetting that Not Dead Yet has a tight timing window.

How to Counter Clove

Clove’s post-death smokes make them hard to fully remove, so deny the opening kill that fuels Pick-me-up. A recon ability reveals their Ruse plans, and focusing Clove early stops the snowball before Not Dead Yet can flip the round.

Clove is a high-skill, high-reward controller. Compare them with other agents on the full roster before committing to ranked.